Swimmer's Daily

  • A 29-year-old South Perth woman has won the first ever Port to Pub Rottnest swim.

    Sian Williams finished to 20km solo category in a time of four hours and 57 minutes, coming in 18 minutes ahead of the first male finisher.

    “I felt a bit lonely all by myself for most of the race. I was nervous about the unexpected and how my body would pull up,” she said.

    “I only seriously started training six weeks ago.”

    Swimming legend Shelley Taylor-Smith, who sounded the starting horn for solo swimmers, said it was great to see a woman finish first.

    “It shows you women can match men in endurance events. Racing against men brings the best out in women,” she said.

    Read WAToday

    Sian Williams, first 20km solo across the line in 4hr57min!!! 👏👏👏 @siany_williams

    A video posted by Port to Pub (@porttopub) on

  • A South Australian MP made an embarrassing blunder at the launch of the Australian Swimming Championships as she introduced the star attraction, Ian Thorpe.

    Labor MP Katrine Hildyard introduced Thorpe as one of his former teammates: “Five time Olympic gold medallist Grant Hackett”.

    After an awkward silence, a correction was made.

    “Australia’s greatest Olympian Ian Thorpe, look thank you everyone for coming here today,” a media manger says from the background.

    See Yahoo!7

  • 6 swimmers from around the globe attempt to swim from Europe to Africa. A world champion swimmer, a CEO, a cancer patient, a heart attack survivor, an Olympian and a college professor whose lifelong dream has always been to swim the Strait of Gibraltar. Jetlagged, exhausted and somewhat underprepared, we follow the stories of these swimmers as they battle the freezing elements across two continents. Dodging huge shipping tankers while trying to reach unfriendly Moroccan border agents is just the beginning. This mental and physical “marathon in the dark” will test everyone with surprising results.

  • Sebastian Iwanow is aiming for a medal at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio. He was born without kneecaps and shins. Injuries have set him back several times, but each time he managed to fight his way back to the top. Will his dream of a medal in Rio come true?

    https://youtu.be/t-mFoWNDO8k

  • Donate now at http://www.sportrelief.com/donate – Greg James has 30 seconds to pull on as many pairs of swimming trunks as he can. Can he beat the World Record?

  • Olympic-hopeful Jack Burnell has signed up to join one of London’s newest open water festivals. Hyde Park’s two-day Swim Serpentine is set to take place from 24-25 September 2016 – A month after the 22 year old is due to compete in Rio.

  • The Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will be the last Olympics for Michael Phelps (USA). Phelps can look back to an incredible and unique career. He won 22 Olympic Medals (18 Gold Medals) and set more records than any other swimmer in the world.

  • Arkady Vyatchanin loves his country.

    He just doesn’t want to represent Russia at the Olympics.

    That stance has left the swimmer in legal limbo with the Rio Games less than five months away, the pawn in a political tug-of-war that again shows just how little the guys in charge actually care about the athletes.

    “I guess I underestimated the burden that I’ll carry,” said Vyatchanin, who lives and trains in the United States and wants to swim for Serbia in what very well could be his last shot at the Olympics.

    Vyatchanin has an impressive resume. At the 2008 Beijing Games, he captured a pair of bronze medals, finishing behind American winners Aaron Peirsol in the 100-meter backstroke and Ryan Lochte in the 200 back. He also has four medals from the world championships — three silvers and a bronze.

    After a disappointing performance at the London Olympics, where Vyatchanin failed to qualify for the final in either backstroke event, he had a falling-out with the Russian swimming federation over his decision to begin training in Gainesville, Florida, under renowned coach and longtime Lochte mentor Gregg Troy.

    More troubling, Vyatchanin had serious concerns about just how committed his country was to the battle against doping, a stance that turned out to be very well-founded given the almost daily revelations of ramping cheating throughout Russian sports.

    Read AP The Big Story

  • Yusra Mardini is a Syrian refugee hoping to qualify for the Olympic Games in 2016. Just seven months ago the 17-year-old made the journey from Turkey to Greece by boat.
    More about this swimmer’s journey: http://on.mash.to/1PgHQzU

    See Mashable